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Friday, April 5, 2013

Will librarians still use Goodreads?

Will Librarians Still Use Goodreads?

Apparently, librarians use Goodreads as a source of recommendations for purchases, which was something that was news to me, and heightens my respect for librarians -- that they can actually navigate the confoundedly difficult Goodreads site and glean recommendations from it is a technical marvel.

But will they still do so? Or will they shift to Library Thing -- which, ironically enough, is partly owned by Amazon.com, as it was part of their purchase of ABE books.

Founded in 2006, Goodreads boosts over 202 million active users and provides one of the few reliable sources of free reviews (especially for those books that weren’t covered by more traditional review outlets) on the Internet.

This is what some librarians have to say about the Amazon.com purchase:

“I’ve relied on Goodreads more and more,” Anna Mickelsen of Springfield P.L. in Massachusetts said, as ”the site I use to organize the books I’ve read and want to read.” Darien Library’s Head of Adult Programming Erin Shea relies on Goodreads as “a neutral haven.”

Neither of them is very confident, however, about the site’s future. “I’m a very faithful user!” Mickelsen explained, but “I don’t trust Amazon’s business practices.” Shea worries that it will be “difficult to discern what recommendations come from [Goodreads'] algorithm and what have been paid for.” Leah White, reader services librarian from Northbrook P.L. in Illinois said, “I worry about the consolidation of reading resources on the internet—Amazon now owns Shelfari, Audible, and Goodreads” as well being the biggest retailer of books on the internet. “This lack of diversity scares me.”

Robin Bradford, a collection development librarian from Indianapolis P.L., is unruffled by the announcement. “Amazon is big (and getting bigger) so it is easy to take shots at them,” she said. If the acquisition prompts people to “look more closely at all arrangements, who owns what companies and what their privacy practices are, that’s great.” A knee jerk reaction, she noted, “isn’t particularly helpful.” Ultimately, Bradford imagines that her (and her patrons’) use of Goodreads will only increase.

Shea tried to look on the bright side, hoping that in the wake of this purchase, “librarians and independent bookstores will only become more valuable for readers’ advisory.” “Unlike Amazon,” she says, “we are…in the business of connecting books with readers and…we are good at it.”